Shia LaBeouf's acid trip was all in a day's work

Shia LaBeouf was working hard to discover to his character for "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman" — but it turns out he couldn't quite get there without taking an acid trip along the way.

LaBeouf first sought advice from costar Evan Rachel Wood, someone he said he's always looked up to as an actor.

"I remember sending Evan tapes," he said in an interview with MTV News at Sundance. "I remember trying to conjure this [character] and sending tapes and Evan being like, 'Yeah, that’s good, but that’s not, but this is, but that ain’t.'"

(Not that she's any kind of drug expert, she chimed in.)

The so-so reaction creeped him out, he said. Hence, the real-life trip.

"I was just kind of scared. I'd never done acid before."

In the end, he reluctantly admitted, it was fun. But he said he didn't do it because he wanted to be on drugs or mess up the production or anything.

"You don’t show up completely wasted," he said. "You don’t show up completely tripping on acid. But you’re rooting for something, and you’re pushing yourself toward it. Everybody’s got their own way."

It's not the first time LaBeouf has sent a tape around to check whether he was right for a character. He infamously sent director Lars von Trier a tape of him and his girlfriend having sex — really — to land his role in the upcoming film "Nymphomaniac."